This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest stories on the total eclipse below:
First contact is when the moon’s outer edge first appears to touch the sun, creating the beginnings of a partial eclipse and a crescent sun reducing in size until totality (second contact).
In the moments before totality, look for (in order) shadow bands, Baily’s Beads and a diamond ring, three of the most memorable stages of a total eclipse.
It gives us the opportunity not just to leverage all the great scientific capabilities that we have in the US, using all kinds of equipment, aircraft, kites, balloons, sounding rockets, all flying up into the atmosphere to observe.
But in addition we have trained regular citizens, not professional scientists, to use solar telescopes. And we have an app on your phone. We’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people taking pictures, and by pulling all that data together, we think we’re going to understand the shape of the sun down to within a few kilometers.
When literally day turns to night, animals start to behave differently, we’re seeing changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s a mystical, mysterious experience. And I love the thought that millions of Americans will stand together today, looking up into the sky wearing their glasses. It is amazing.
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